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Wednesday, April 30, 2014

My dear friend, Gina Lille is a product consultant for doTERRA oils and has really opened my eyes to the health benefits you can receive from high quality essential oils. When it comes to quality, it doesn't get better than doTERRA. doTERRA oils are only available from independent distributors and are designed to appeal to both the expert and novice.

Their product descriptions are very clear so you have a good understanding of what you will be receiving. High quality essential oils will be pricey, but cheap oils are just that: cheap. There are a lot of factors that come into play when determining quality and many things can impact it, such as harvesting, distillation, manufacture, distribution, and storage.

doTERRA is committed to providing the highest quality possible and has this to say in their mission statement:

We at dōTERRA are committed to sharing the life-enhancing benefits of
therapeutic-grade essential oils and essential oil enhanced wellness
products with the world. We will do this by:

Providing educational opportunities for all people interested in
learning how therapeutic-grade essential oils can be used as a self-care
wellness alternative.

Bringing together health care professionals of traditional and
alternative medicine to encourage further study and application of
therapeutic-grade essential oils in modern health care practices.

For those of you completely unfamiliar with essential oils, let me explain a few of the ways they can be used.

~ As an aromatheraputic application, you can place the oils in some sort of diffuser or burner. I use a small ceramic diffuser that has a spot for a tea candle and a basin above that in which the oils go. You place several drops of oil in the basin and light the candle underneath. The heat from the candle activates and warms the oils so the fragrance fills the air. There are also diffusers that work like vaporizers. I have no personal experience with those.

~ You can use many oils topically as you would a perfume or a massage oil. Not all oils are safe for topical application and most need to be blended with a carrier oil such as grapeseed or fractionated coconut oil. The essential oil should clearly state on the bottle the ways in which you may use it.

~ Many oils can be used internally and have a surprising array of health benefits. Make sure you read the label before you take any essential oil internally!

For my review, I received 3 full sized bottles of their blended oils. I chose Balance, Serenity and Citrus Bliss.

Balance is a blend of spruce, rosewood, frankincense, and blue tansy and has a very earthy smell. It helps calm anxiety and "promote a sense of calm and well-being." I suffer from anxiety issues and this blend definitely helps me feel more calm and focused.

Serenity is a blend of lavender, sweet marjoram, roman chamomile, ylang ylang, sandalwood and
vanilla bean and has a sensual, sweet but not overpowering fragrance. It
helps promote relaxation, as the name implies.

Citrus Bliss is a blend of wild orange, lemon, grapefruit, mandarin, bergamot, tangerine, and clementine with a hint of vanilla. It has a very bright, clean smell and is my favorite of the three. Citrus has been known to improve mood and reduce stress. I like to blend this with my Balance oil in the diffuser. The two combined have actually stopped a migraine headache for me.

I also received sample bottles of Clary Calm, Lavender, Lemon, Lemon Grass, Peppermint and Purify oils. Clary Calm is my favorite of those. I blended it with lavender and placed it in my diffuser to help my four year old sleep at night. It works wonderfully.

I've had lots of fun looking up recipes for things to make with my oils. I've already used the Citrus Bliss blended with vinegar and water to make an all purpose cleaner for around the house. It works great on glass and surprisingly well for removing stains from the carpet.

The next thing I plan to make is a room spray using the Serenity oil and also, a face scrub with the Balance oil. Look for future "How-tos" from me, featuring essential oil blended products.

There are so many blends and single oils that I can't wait to try. If you have any questions about essential oils, Gina is the expert to contact! She has been so helpful to me and very prompt in finding answers to questions I've had along the way.

I love to cook! I used to hate it because I could never think of
anything new to make and always ended up cooking the same things. Its
taken me years to refine my palate and discover what I like, what my
family likes and what I can cook in pinch. After all these years though,
I find that I've slipped back into the habit of making a lot of the
same things.

When the opportunity arose for me to do a review for ChefButler I jumped at the chance! After perusing their website and seeing that they were a subscription box company that offered spices and dried goods to cook up delicious meals from around the world, I couldn't wait to get started!

I received my box from ChefButler and tore into it. Upon opening the package, I was swept away by a spectacular aroma of spices. Inside the standard brown box was a beautiful silver box from which this exotic smell emanated. I didn't even know what was inside, but I couldn't wait to get cooking.

Unfortunately, I had to wait a few days to dig in. Most nights, its only my daughter and I eating dinner and I wanted to wait for a night that my husband was home.

Inside the box was a pretty purple envelope which contained my recipes, shopping list and a welcome letter from the company. On the back of the welcome letter, I found "The Game Plan" which detailed the order in which I was to cook the dishes for them all to come out at the same time. I was particularly impressed with the shopping list. I am a list girl, so this made me very happy!

My March ChefButler box contained spices and recipes to make three Pakistani dishes; a Main Dish - Beef Qeema, a Side Dish - Vegetable Biryani and a Dessert - Coconut Ladoo. Spices included turmeric, garam masala, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper, chili powder and more. I've never cooked Pakistani food before, but the spices smelled like curries that I've had some experience with in the past so I knew that our family would love this.

On cooking day, I tucked the shopping list and recipes into my purse and headed to the store to pick up my produce and meat. Beef Qeema is a dish traditionally made with minced meat. My recipe called for ground beef to make things simple. There was nothing especially exotic or unusual on my shopping list so I had no problem getting everything I needed.

At home, I set to work prepping all my ingredients. Both the main dish and the side required a bit of prep work chopping veggies. I got the prep work done for both dishes and got started on the Vegetable Biryani.

The Game Plan recommended making dessert first but I wasn't sure we would be eating the dessert that night so I moved to the next step.

The recipes were very easy to follow and soon my whole house smelled like an exotic spice market. I opened the windows to make my neighbors jealous.

My husband came home while I was still cooking and said that he could smell dinner down the street while he approached on his motorcycle.

Over all, I spent about 1.75 hrs prepping and cooking this meal. Prep time took a little longer because I am in a tiny, galley kitchen so I had to get creative. I enjoyed cooking this meal and I especially enjoyed eating it!

The Beef Qeema was cooked in yogurt, which imparted a sharp tang that blended particularly well with the slightly sweet spices that were involved. The Vegetable Biryani was a rice and vegetable dish that had a lovely curry flavor.

My only complaint would be that there was too much food! My husband and I both had seconds. My four year old daughter loved the rice. Even with all of that, we still had a ton of leftovers! We ate leftovers for lunch the next day and dinner the following evening. It was wonderful!

I still have my ingredients to make the Coconut Ladoo. I am sure that they will be just as delicious as the other dishes!

So, now for the details.

ChefButler is a Canadian company and they currently only ship within Canada. They made an exception for me though and I hope that soon they will expand to the U.S.!

Boxes can be purchased monthly for $35.00 per month or you can receive a box every other month. With the second option, you pay $17.50 each month. All prices include tax and shipping in Canada and are in Canadian currency. Should ChefButler change their policy and begin shipping to the U.S. I will update this review with that information. I truly hope that they are able to that because I would certainly subscribe!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

If you've ever gone to a bar or lounge, you may have noticed 'flights' of drinks - these are a series of items, such as tequila or beer, designed to allow you to taste variations. Sometimes it will be a variety of types, sometimes, the same type at various ages. They are an interesting and fun way to get to know why certain factors really alter the way something tastes, as well as a great way to figure out what you prefer.

A few days ago, Daniel shared his experience trying out a 'flight' of 7 varieties of prepared gourmet popcorn (1.5 cups each) from KuKuRuZa. KuKuRuZa offers these to let their customers select which types they'd most like to try. With 25 varieties to select from, picking 7 may be tough! Fortunately our review let's you know a bit more about a few of them.

We've got two ways for you to get your hands on some of this delightful popcorn! First, KuKuRuZa has made a discount code available for our readers - this is only going to be available until Monday, May 26th and is good for 10% of any online order.

To get 10% off your online KuKuRuZa order until May 26, 2014, use the code: RCHREVIEWS.

I am going to tell you right now - this would be a really fun Father's Day gift, and you could use the discount code to get it in time to make your favorite Dad really happy!

They've also generously allowed us to offer a giveaway of one of their Popcorn Flights. This giveaway is open to US residents only and will close just before midnight on Tuesday, May 13th. The winner will receive 7 1.5 cup portions of the flavors of their choice.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

My
four-year-old daughter and I love to craft. We have yearly subscriptions to
craft projects that come in the mail, we frequent Pinterest for stuff to do on
rainy days, and my craft supply inventory would make many jealous!

This week we
decided to make a Easter/Spring themed craft based on a link that my mom had sent me to: Kiki's Korner: A is For Activities. It was obviously our
inspiration but with no directions, we just went by the picture.

I
would say that altogether it was roughly a 45 minute project, if that. It would
really depend on how many you plan on making, which would alter the amount of
prep as well.

I
didn’t have a number in mind of how many we were going to make. It was just
something we were going to fill our time with while the eggs were cooking so we
could dye them. I wanted to use items we already had on hand, so first I went around to our three bathrooms and gathered
toilet paper rolls. Thank goodness we are all awful about actually placing
those things in the trash. At this point my daughter did ask to help so I told
her to go find one in her bathroom. I pop in a few minutes later to find her
unraveling her current roll to GET to the tube. Oops…

Then
I went through my various craft stuff to have everything ready for when we
began crafting. I gathered strips of scrapbook paper to use as the bodies, I
cut out arms and wings from construction paper and cut out feet.

Most
of it is using your imagination, and doesn’t have to be anything specific. For
the body, just make sure your paper is wide and long enough to cover a toilet paper
roll. For the feet I used foam board I cut the base wide to cover the end of a
toilet paper tube, with protruding feet. I also constructed bunny ears our of
foam board.

The
first step was gluing the strip of paper to the toilet paper tube. We used
regular glue sticks. My daughter was pretty good about this part, I just helped
ensure the edges were secure.

Next
we added the facial features. She wanted to add a nose made from foam board,
and then draw the rest on with marker. We glued the ears onto the inside of the
tube, sticking out, on the opposite side we drew the face. Then we balled up
some ribbon to use as a bushy bunny tail. This would have worked well with pompoms
as well!

The
last step was glueing on the feet. I’ll admit I didn’t think this through very
well. The edges of a toilet paper roll aren’t much to glue to. It may have
worked out better with this paper, but I had made the feet from thick heavy
foam board. We ended up having to glue it on with super glue. Seems a bit
extreme for a kids craft, but we were out of options!

My
daughter was beyond happy with the creation. These could be made into a number
of animals easily! All you need is a big imagination and any different
materials.

We made a bunny, a chicky and a frog!

The
next morning Hailey found them nestled in her Easter basket filled with candy! We even added a pink tutu to the chicky as a surprise.

I have seen these cute little Easter-inspired Deviled Eggs posted in the Interwebs for the past few years. I always thought “How cute, I have to try that someday.”

Apparently, that some day for me was Easter eve, between making and eating dinner. This is a project not to be taken lightly, and is not to be done between making and eating dinner.

First things first, you need to hard boil a dozen eggs. If you’re anything like me (and I am) you need to look up how to perfectly hard boil eggs, as the last time I did that was, oh, a million years ago. I found The Incredible Edible Egg which made it easy. Bring eggs to just a boil then take off the heat, cover and let cool for 12 minutes.

The site even mentions that very fresh eggs are harder to peel. I also learned this by experience, adding probably an hour to the prep time. What also adds to the prep time is not properly cooling the eggs before peeling, so egg peels up with the shell. Ugh. Should have read that part.

Once the eggs were peeled, I pierced into them in a zig zag. I used a small, non serrated knife, and only cut into the egg white, not the yolk. I cut some of the eggs just above the equator, and some higher, as I figure I am making little creatures, not robots.

Hmm, new idea, make robot eggs…

As with deviled eggs, all the yolks were placed in a separate bowl and mashed together with a fork until the yolks were small crumbles.

I added Mayo, this is to taste or consistency, I don’t like the yolk to be too creamy with mayo, so I added tablespoon by tablespoon until I got it right.

Then I added about ¼ teaspoon of prepared yellow mustard, a pinch of salt and dash of garlic powder, all to taste.

I used a zip lock bag to pipe the yolk mixture into the egg whites.

For the eyes, they are small pieces of olives, most of these chicks I did with small pieces of olive, for the one with all the close ups, I used the ends of 2 olives, and ate the rest. You’re welcome.

The beaks and feet are carrots. I use baby carrots, as there is less to chop.

The beak was a small triangular piece, and for the feet I used a slivered round piece of carrot, cut a V then placed at base of egg.

Some of these cuties I put hats on (the top of the egg white), others became more chicks, mmm.